Stand clear of the closing doors, please \u2014 the Miss Subways pageant has just crowned a new queen of the rails.<\/p>\n
Abby Fantastic<\/a>, a 40-year-old burlesque performer\/native New Yorker based in East Flatbush, sashayed to victory Friday night when she represented the \u201cA line\u201d at NYC\u2019s annual, fun-filled palooza, held at Coney Island USA\u2019s Sideshows by the Seashore Theater.<\/p>\n The event honors the city\u2019s oft-frustrating, always iconic public transit system, along with the 4 million-plus New Yorkers who use the MTA\u2019s subway every day.<\/p>\n Abby Fantastic, a 40-year-old burlesque performer, was crowned this year\u2019s Miss Subways at Coney Island USA. Stephen Yang<\/p>\n \u201cBeing a fourth generation New Yorker, I love this city,\u201d said Fantastic, who clinched this year\u2019s \u201ctransit tiara\u201d with a two-part burlesque performance, dancing to an instrumental version of \u201cHarlem Nocturne\u201d (a 1939 jazz standard by Earle Hagen) and \u201cRockaway Beach\u201d (a 1977 hit by the Ramones<\/a>) while stripping down to an MTA-blue outfit that included A train nipple covers. \u201cI\u2019m raising my children here because I want to live in New York \u2026To be able to represent and be here is an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n The talent showcase, orchestrated by the City Reliquary, featured seven contestants this year, including a mix of burlesque performers, comedians and vocalists, as well as a puppeteer and an aerialist.<\/p>\n Dave Herman, founder of the City Reliquary museum in Williamsburg<\/a>, told The Post that the finalists were handpicked from a pool of \u201cdozens\u201d of applicants, and that the number of would-be participants for the campy contest has been increasing \u201cevery year.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to invite people to have a moment on stage with performing\/showing whatever their skills may be, but also with an importance on how they represent the ridership of New York\u2019s subway system,\u201d said Herman.<\/p>\n The judges for the 2026 Miss Subways pageant included Bernie Wasgenblast, voice of the MTA, seated from left); Joe Coleman, painter and performer; and Queerly Femmetastic, who was crowned Miss Subways 2024. Stephen Yang<\/p>\n \u201cSomebody who has a sense of pride in being a straphanger, and who\u2019s also going to advocate for improvements,\u201d he continued. \u201cThere\u2019s a sense of civic pride and stewardship that we look for in candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n A history of Miss Subways<\/strong><\/p>\n The annual contest, which was revived by the reliquary back in 2017, has evolved into a celebratory evening full of kitschy theatrics \u2014 but it did not start that way.<\/p>\n According to Polly Desjarlais, the New York Transit Museum<\/a> content manager and transit historian, the original Miss Subways was a scouted-out beauty contest<\/a>, rather than an in-person showcase, originating back in 1941.<\/p>\n The original Miss Subways was not an in-person beauty pageant. Rather, it was a scouted-out contest that eventually opened up to rider voting. Courtesy New York Transit Museum<\/p>\n It began shortly after the city unified the subway system by merging the IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit) and BMT (Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation) with the city-owned IND (Independent Subway System). Around that same time, the New York Subways Advertising Company had gained exclusive rights to sell ad space on the subways and elevated lines.<\/p>\n Desjarlais explained that one of the org\u2019s first initiatives was to launch \u201cMeet Miss Subways\u201d \u2014 a campaign intended to draw riders\u2019 attention to the advertisements inside subway cars and, most importantly, to increase ad revenue.<\/p>\n The Miss Subways contest first took place from 1941 to 1976. Courtesy New York Transit Museum<\/p>\n While the earliest winners were \u201cdiscovered\u201d in everyday places, thereby getting their photos and a short biography plastered on subway car placards, the contest \u2014 which is widely regarded as one of America\u2019s first integrated beauty pageants \u2014 became so popular that New Yorkers started sending in applications to nominate the women in their own lives.<\/p>\n The sweepstakes opened up to rider voting in the 1960s, with this selection method continuing until the contest\u2019s end in 1976.<\/p>\n